Land disputes set to end as govt rolls out digitalised deeds

THE government shall in June, this year, start issuing digitalised land title deeds to replace the outdated manual system.

Speaking in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlement, Mr William Lukuvi (pictured), said the new system shall reduce time and money spent in acquiring the document. The Minister has, therefore, urged the Integrated Land Management Information System (ILMIS) to hasten the process, so that the launch is held as planned.

Speaking after touring the ILMIS offices in Dar es Salaam, Mr Lukuvi said the new process shall automatically stop double allocation of land titles and allow issuance of the 99-year land title that cannot be tampered with, as it was the case in some areas currently, where people use fake names to own land.

“When this new system becomes operational in June, this year, corruption in land occupancy shall automatically come to an end, because land records shall be preserved in a special system that neither land officials nor other authorities may tamper with. We thank the World Bank for supporting the establishment of this facility,” he said.

Mr Lukuvi has directed ILMIS officials to make sure that the system becomes operational on time, to enable land occupants in Kinondoni and Ubungo districts get their electronic title deeds on time. ILMIS is carrying out the implementation in the two districts as a pilot project and later this year, the project may most likely be extended to other eight zones.

Mr Lukuvi is optimistic that the public shall from now on have easy access to loans through the digital title deeds,insisting that previously, issuance of title deeds used to take a month to 10 years, but under the new electronic system, the process shall only take a maximum of seven days.

“All data registration-evaluation will be collected through the ILMIS and installed in a digital way, thereby, all Tanzanians either in Dar es Salaam or other regions will not need to come for verification on title deeds in Dar es Salaam, as it will be accessed in their regions,” said Mr Lukuvi.

He also outlined positive impacts of the digital record system, saying there would be no land disputes that currently exist through analogue system, as data shall be accessed easily.

ILMS project allows electronic updating, processing, storage and retrieval of land records and information, avoid double registration of land and ensure payment of all related taxes. Funded by the World Bank, the project is aimed at easing the management of Tanzanian land, while facilitating access to information for population and this has been a major concern for the country.

The initial phase of the project includes the design, development, customisation, building, installation of ILMIS, supporting efficient administration of cadastre and real property registration at central, zone and district level, conversion and indexing of data and migration into the ILMIS database.